1. Field
This disclosure relates to methods for testing telephonic systems, more particularly to a method for generating traffic profiles used in testing telephonic systems.
2. Background
Telephone networks have become increasingly complex and users require more capacity and higher reliability than ever before. Even the lower complexity public switched transmission networks (PSTN) now must accommodate more and more users with data lines for modem transmissions with ever-increasing demands for speed. Enterprise customers typically use integrated services digital networks (ISDN), and may have a mix of old and new equipment including bridges, gateways and private branch exchanges (PBX). Some even use voice over data networks applications, which require converters and network routers to be part of the telephone system.
The design and testing of these systems has likewise become very complex and critically important. The current speed of business does not allow for long down times to fix faulty designs or overcome capacity problems. Testing tools are available for testing and validating networks, but the ability of the average systems engineer or information technology engineer to comprehend and test all aspects of these networks is limited due to the complexity of the tools.
Some methods for providing user inputs to the testing systems require extensive loading of lookup tables through command prompts. One example of such a method is found in U.S. Pat. No. 6,091,801, issued Jul. 18, 2000, entitled xe2x80x9cEmulator for a Telephone System.xe2x80x9d In this method, the user interface is a bare command prompt and the user enters the desired values for each field, one at a time. These fields are loaded into a lookup table and the lookup table is accessed for call simulation.
In other methods, the user is allowed to provide some inputs. However, the user-specified inputs are limited and other methods are preferred. An example of this type of method is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,652,791, issued Jul. 29, 1997, entitled xe2x80x9cSystem and Method for Simulating Operation of an Automatic Call Distributor.xe2x80x9d The user typically only provides an input designating duration of the test.
Therefore, a method for allowing users to provide more detailed parameters for controlling the tests in a user-friendly way would seem useful.
One aspect of the invention is a method for generating and distributing telephonic traffic. A call profile is received from a user interface. The call profile identifies a number of calls per time period for each of a series of points within duration of time. In one embodiment, the traffic profile identifies a number of calls per second for each hour in a twenty-four hour period. Traffic distributions are generated for the intervals between each point, according to a distribution specified by the user. An overall traffic profile is then created these distributions. As part of the user specification, the user can designate a call hold time for the time duration. The call hold time is based upon at least one parameter and a distribution. The traffic profile and the call hold time is then sent to a call generator to test the system.
Another aspect of the disclosure is a traffic distribution generator. The generator has a traffic graphical user interface. The generator has user inputs that allow the user to select a number of calls per time period for a predetermined number of points in time and to select a distribution to be used between the points in time. A processor then generates a traffic profile based upon the user inputs and transmits it to a bulk call generator.